


The Old and the New

by Sweven



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Force Usage, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweven/pseuds/Sweven
Summary: Mara Jade and Ahsoka Tano meet and then they meet again.





	The Old and the New

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MalcolmInSpace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalcolmInSpace/gifts).



> This is fairly Ahsoka-centric, I hope it fits the "The face of the old EU and the face of the new EU" well enough! <3

Ahsoka was on Deralia, a farming planet that had seemingly been a farming planet for thousands of years. It was a dull place, nothing but nerfs and crops as far as the eye could see, but rumour had it that a powerful Jedi had once buried a holocron here. It was a long shot, but still worth looking into, Ahsoka had thought. Anything that could give the Rebellion an edge over the Emperor was potentially priceless. Unfortunately, as Ahsoka had bitterly informed Hera earlier that day, the rumour had no basis in truth. Her friend had been sympathetic, but not surprised. Most of Ahsoka’s solo excursions these days were gainless. Often the rumour was pure myth, other times the Empire had already claimed whatever valuable item Ahsoka was after.

Ahsoka was browsing the market. She’d wasted the better part of a week searching this rock for non-existent clues left by an ancient Jedi, the least she deserved was fresh fruit for the travel to her next assignment. As she picked up a brown daelfruit to inspect the surface, a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

A long cape and a glimpse of red hair disappeared into a small alley. Something was different about this person, Ahsoka thought, and curiously reached out with the Force. As Ahsoka bounced cleanly off the person’s mental shields, an excited jolt ran through her. Oh. Force-sensitive then. With shields like that, maybe she’d even been trained?

Ahsoka dropped the daelfruit without a thought and nearly flattened a salesman in her eagerness to follow the red-headed human into the alley. As soon as Ahsoka was on the edge of the market-place, she sped up. Maybe it was a surviving Jedi? They were rare and far between, but she’d run into them a couple of times before. Kanan and Ezra hadn’t been the only ones to join the ranks of the Rebellion and although she’d left the Jedi Order many years ago, fellow Force-users still felt more like home than anything she knew.

As Ahsoka’s thoughts raced, the girl with the red hair had clearly realised that she was being followed.

The girl led Ahsoka on a merry chase through the labyrinthine web of the city. She moved irrationally from alleys to rooftops, and Ahsoka couldn't figure out if she knew the area very well or if she didn't know it at all. Her shields were strong and close to no emotion bled through them. Despite her efforts, Ahsoka could never get close enough to shout a word of reassurance to the stranger or get even a proper look at her.

 

Only when they finally came to a stop, both of them breathing a bit heavily, did Ahsoka realise how young the girl in front of her was. She was a scrawny kid, no more than 11 or 12 years old, Ahsoka thought, and green eyes were sparking with anger. The girl whipped out a blaster with an expertise that made Ahsoka’s heart bleed for what the girl must've been through.

“Why are you following me?!”, the girl demanded, keeping the blaster level and steady at Ahsoka’s chest.

“I mean you no harm, no need for weapons!,” Ahsoka said, carefully keeping her hands where the girl could see them. “I can help you. Are you in trouble?”

Uncertainty was starting to creep into the girl’s face. She scrunched up her nose and Ahsoka noticed her pale freckles, almost invisible, at the movement. The girl didn’t seem to want to speak however, so Ahsoka continued. “You’re a Force-user, right? Did someone train you?” She slowly unholstered her lightsabers and the girl tensed up. Despite the child’s mental shields, Ahsoka could feel the burst of adrenaline that coursed through her. Ahsoka made a placating movement and left her weapons unignited. Better to not agitate the girl further.  “No no, don’t worry. These are lightsabers, do you know what they are? I used to be a Jedi, a long time ago. I’m a Force-user, just like you.”

“You don’t quit being a Jedi”, the girl said, brows wrinkled in confusion. “Besides, my mum told me before she left, all the Jedi are gone!”

Ahsoka smiled sadly before lowering her lightsabers. “Most of them are. Not all though”, she said. “Did your mum leave? Where’s the rest of your family?”

“There’s just me”, the girl said, standing tall and defiant. Her blaster was still pointed squarely at the center of Ahsoka’s mass, which Ahsoka appreciated in a way. Whatever the girl had been through, at least she could take care of herself. Invaluable skill to have in this galaxy. “Where's yours?”, the girl asked.

“Far away, I'm afraid. On the other side of the galaxy, really”, Ahsoka said. She wasn’t enjoying the subject matter particularly, but she was happy that at least the girl was communicating now, and she was eager to keep her talking. “I bet you'd like them though, especially one of the kids. He can use the Force like you can. “

The girl's eyes widened. “There's kids? Are you their Master?”

“Oh no, it's not like the stories of the Jedi apprenticeships you've probably heard of”, Ahsoka said. “I try to help, but as I said, I'm not a Jedi.”

“Why aren’t you a Jedi anymore?”, the girl asked.

“Oh, kid, that’s a long story. I’d be happy to tell you, but not standing around like this”, Ahsoka said before hesitating. ‘Why don’t you come into my spaceship’ sounded creepy and she didn’t want to scare the girl away. “How did you end up on Deralia? You don’t sound like you’re from here.”

“I uh. kind of hitched a ride with a smuggler… In his cargo hold… so uh. He dumped me here when he found me”, the girl looked a bit frazzled, but whether that was from embarrassment at stowing away or being caught Ahsoka wasn't sure.

Ahsoka chuckled. “I've done that a few times, it's not such a bad way to travel.” The girl smiled carefully at the older woman. ‘Alright, this is a safer topic’, Ahsoka thought. “Did you pick up the blaster from the smuggler as well? They usually have a lot of useful stuff, don't you think?”

The girl nodded. “Yeah he said that I should at least have something to defend myself with. He didn’t have anything as cool as a lightsaber though.”

“Not many of these left in the galaxy, I’m afraid,” Ahsoka said, and continued jokingly. “Besides, the components are very rare, maintaining a lightsaber is a bit more difficult than a blaster.”

The girl seemed absent in thought as she replied, a strange longing seeping into her voice. “Mhmm, I bet that Ilum wasn’t fun at all.”

Ahsoka froze. Ilum held no value to anyone but the Jedi and the Sith, and the Crystal Caves had been a well-kept secret for a thousand years until the Emperor had tainted them years ago. Even now the Caves weren’t common knowledge. How did this child know of them?

“Oh,” the girl snapped back to attention. “I shouldn’t have said that,” the girl tilted her head, brow creased in annoyance with herself. Her red hair gleamed in the few stray sunbeams that made it into the alley. ‘For a homeless child on this dusty planet, this girl is too clean’, Ahsoka thought suddenly.

“You're lying”, Ahsoka said, realisation running through her as the girl’s stance shifted from somewhat timid and cautious to overly confidant. “You’ve been lying all along. Who are you?”

The girl smiled, a smile meant to look razor-sharp but it just made her look very, very young, Ahsoka thought. “Why would I tell you? I wouldn’t be a very good operative if I gave away my secrets that easily.”

The girls’ shields were solid, but she was still young and Ahsoka had spent years and years of her life actively using the Force. Ahsoka sensed the girl’s intentions a split-second before a gloved hand went to pull the trigger. In that instant, Ahsoka leapt backwards and ignited her lightsabers, blocking the blaster-shot that would have burnt straight through her chest if she had been slower.

An instant was enough for the girl to disappear. Ahsoka looked around the alley with new eyes now that she was no longer searching for a potential ally, but looking for advantages for the enemy. There were exits and hiding-places for a small person all around, and Ahsoka cursed herself for letting herself be blinded like this. She should’ve never let the girl dictate matters in this way. A pang of remorse shot through her, even after realising that the girl was lying she'd hoped to offer her a better life in the Rebellion, she'd hoped to be able to change things. Instead the child was still an agent of an ungrateful Empire. An Empire that would probably dictate the rest of her life.

 

The child was gone. Ahsoka had spent most of the afternoon searching for her, but she had vanished so perfectly that Ahsoka couldn’t help but be impressed. In the coming months, Ahsoka would soon become distracted by the war. Her contacts were concerned about what the Empire was up to on Scarif, but the redheaded girl still crossed her mind from time to time. Ahsoka wondered what became of her, what fate lay ahead for her, but the rebel pushed the thought from her mind and set to work.

 

* * *

 

On Malachor she fought Anakin, and every second of it broke her heart. How her Master had fallen so far and so completely, she would never understand. She saw her own reflection in his helmet and she knew she could never leave him again. The temple fell and there she lay buried with her grief and regrets. Despite her determination, she had failed him once more.

 

* * *

 

A while later, events of great and terrible magnitude echoed through the Force. Though barely conscious, Ahsoka felt each of them like a blow and she longed to take action, to help in some way, but she was trapped in her tomb and her struggles were for naught. Ahsoka faded into the darkness again.

 

She heard the coming and going of people on the surface. Some felt familiar and sometimes Ahsoka felt presences which she could almost recognise. They never stayed for long and soon the planet turned quiet again. Ahsoka stopped yearning for their return, the disappointment was difficult to bear in the darkness.

 

Many years later, Ahsoka felt a tremor in the Force around her. Malachor had laid barren and silent for years, but through the Force she had remained in a deep meditation, patiently waiting for someone to come. After all this time, there was no longer much room in her trance for fear or resentment or any significant form of emotion, but Ahsoka still felt the barest flicker of hope that her friends and allies had come to find her. Hera… Maybe she had survived somehow? How much time had passed?

 

There was movement on the dead planet now, insistent and unyielding. They weren’t leaving this time, she realised through a haze. Ahsoka could feel even the slightest footsteps through the Force and she allowed herself a glimmer of hope that she might feel the sunlight on her skin again. Each footstep seemed like an earthquake to her, but they were so far away that they might as well be on the other side of the galaxy.

They seemed to wander the surface for eons, muffled voices filling the air. Ahsoka was still too deep in her trance to be able to discern the words or the people from one another, but she knew them somehow, she was sure of it. She dared not pull herself further out of the meditative state she was in, the risk of losing her grip on her stasis or the protective bubble surrounding her was too great, but curiosity made the risk tempting. She resisted the temptation, and she listened.

 

The newcomers walked around for days. Small groups of sentient beings were exploring the area surrounding the temple. Larger groups arrived soon after and started clearing the fallen temple, moving rubble and boulders. Excavating, Ahsoka realised slowly before she faded away again.

 

She slept, she thought. Time passed and Ahsoka had no idea of how long had passed since the newcomers had first set foot on Malachor, nor how long had passed since she herself arrived on the planet. Now they were getting closer though. They’d cleared the area around her, and she began to wake up, slower than she ever had woken up before.

Ahsoka cracked an eye open. Everything felt fuzzy after having hibernated in stasis for so long, her montrals were echoing every sound around her almost painfully. Two people came close to her resting place, both bore clear signs of having been touched by the Dark Side.

“You both feel like Anakin”, she mumbled at the two figures approaching. Only when she’d spoken did she realise that she could have chosen wiser words to speak to the strangers. Maybe she’d spoken low enough that they didn’t hear her?

“How in the world did she survive this?”, the one of the right said in a quiet voice. “Look at her clothes… How long has she been down here?”

The other person answered. “What was that she said? Did you hear?” Movement from the right. Ahsoka thought the person must be shaking their head, but everything still felt like if she was under water. Blonde hair caught a light beam from an electrical lightsource - a flashlight maybe?, and she felt blinded.

“I must’ve misheard.” Female, Ahsoka thought. Red hair. Both people came closer, slowly, as if approaching a wild animal. They didn’t feel threatening, but Ahsoka resented being cornered like this, especially when she was too weak to defend herself. She groped around for her lightsaber and found the metal rusty and the cracks filled with dust. How long had she been down here?

Ahsoka refused to die sitting down like this, and as she tried to get up, she felt her pants tear as she moved, the fabric was oddly fragile. Her limbs were still numb and useless, and she sank down onto the floor again, an agonized breath escaping her lungs. The man moved towards her, his desire to help radiating off of him in waves, but the woman stopped him.

“Who are you?”, the woman asked evenly as she kept her distance. “I'm Mara, this is Luke,” she gestured to the blond man behind her.

“Ahsla”, Ahsoka managed to gasp, sticking with her old alias.

“Do you know where you are, Ahsla?”, Mara asked, not unkindly.

“Malachor… Of course. Like I could forget… How long has it been?”, Ahsoka said. Her head was spinning less now that she was sitting still but she still felt weak and her montrals weighed her head down. She’d never been in a Force trance before, but she hadn't expected this kind of drain.

“Since what? I don't think anyone has stepped foot on this planet in decades”, Mara replied.

“That can’t be true, we were all here”, Ahsoka said dismissively. “How long since the fall of the Republic?”

Luke and Mara exchanged an odd look. Luke came closer, ignoring Mara’s warning hand on his shoulder, and knelt in front of Ahsoka. He looked strangely familiar, she thought. There was something about this man… but she couldn’t place it. His blue eyes were piercing and Ahsoka felt compelled to maintain eye-contact as he spoke. “The Old Republic fell almost forty years ago. When did you come here?”

“You’re telling the truth”, Ahsoka whispered as she stared at the blue-eyed stranger. She had never wanted a clear head more than now, but everything was still fuzzy, and the ground started to spin. “It’s been… 24 years? 25?  I’ve been sleeping for two decades?” Ahsoka dug her numb fingers into the ground, struggling to hold onto some semblance of reality. The tiny, sharp rocks in the ground tore at her fingertips but did nothing to stop her world from spinning.

“Luke…”, Mara stepped forward eyeing the hunched over Togruta carefully. Ahsoka was shaking and breathing rapid, shallow breaths, and the woman grimaced in sympathy. Mara had had her share of world-shattering revelations and none of them had been pleasant. “Can you…?”

Luke nodded and reached to touch Ahsoka’s forehead. She flinched, but exhaustion and panic made the movement weak. Luke’s warm fingers pressed against her cool skin and Ahsoka felt herself lose consciousness and she welcomed the darkness.

 

* * *

 

Ahsoka woke up in a brightly lit medical room. Her head felt heavy and her montrals were tingling at the silence of the room. Low beeping noises surrounded her and distant footsteps resounded in the hallway behind the durasteel doors. Quiet. Alone. At least she could move now. Ahsoka tried to lift her arms and was surprised at how easy it was compared to when she’d first woken up on Malachor. She wasn't fully herself yet, but she felt confident, even without a medical droids opinion, that she would be fine.

As Ahsoka sat up, she noticed the hospital garb she was dressed in. Strange. Ahsoka looked around for her own clothes, and in the chair next to the bed she found faded scraps of clothing. They'd been neatly folded, but as she held the fabric, the truth hit her again. The deep burgundy of her shirt was now a stained and pale pink and it felt like it could almost fall apart at her touch.

“24 years… “, Ahsoka whispered to herself. “It's true...” She looked around the room, mildly concerned that she'd find Imperial decor on the walls, though not particularly surprised when she didn't. Her rescuers had been strange. Both touched by the dark side, yes, but both had felt more muddled light than dark.. Whatever this place was, however the war had turned out, they didn't seem entirely hostile. Ahsoka didn’t quite dare hope, but… maybe, against impossible odds, they’d won?

Suddenly the durasteel doors slid open and the red-haired woman from Malachor entered with a cup of caf in one hand and the other one covering a yawn. When she saw that Ahsoka was awake, Mara instantly snapped out of her casual stroll. Ahsoka recognised the vary way the woman moved towards the Togruta’s bed. This was a warrior entering a potentially hostile area.

“How’re you feeling, Ahsla?”, Mara asked, green eyes focused intently on Ahsoka.

Ahsoka chuckled softly and tried to avoid eye-contact with the other woman. “Like the floor has fallen away from underneath me. I can’t believe it… 24 years is just… unbelieveable”, Ahsoka said feebly. She sat there in her bland clothing, surrounded by pale blue light, and a stranger asking questions, and Ahsoka suddenly felt very young and very alone.

“Yeah it must be a lot to take in. We have questions we’d like to ask you when you’re feeling up to it”, Mara said, wrinkling her nose in annoyance at the bright lights shining down on them. The motion reminded Ahsoka of someone who had been lingering in the back of her head for months now. A memory of a too young girl with a heavy future laid upon her. As Mara grumbled and reached up to adjust the light, her pale freckles came into the light, and Ahsoka made the connection.

“Wait, I know you!”, Ahsoka said as she sat up ramrod straight, ignoring the wave of dizziness that made her vision blacken for an instant. “We’ve met. You were an Imperial!”

Mara jumped back a bit at Ahsoka’s sudden exclamation, but there was no spark of recognition in her eyes. “Twenty years ago I was a child”, she said calmly.

“You had a blaster and you lured me to a back-alley on some backwater planet”, Ahsoka continued. “You tried to trick me into telling you about the Rebellion and then you ran away. It _was_ you, I’m sure of it,  it was just a few months ago.” As she finished speaking, Ahsoka’s thoughts caught up with her tongue, and she mentally berated herself for not thinking before she spoke. What if she was on an Imperial shuttle after all? How could she be so thoughtless?

Mara tilted her head, face kept carefully absent of emotion. “I have no memory of this, but you might very well be correct. I ran many such missions back in the day”, a strained smile crossed Mara’s lips as she continued. “I’m not an Imperial any more. You’re on board a New Republic vessel en route to Coruscant. Luke and I went to Malachor at the request of a agent of ours. She claimed that Vader went there, many years ago, but we definitely hadn’t expected to find anyone alive. How _did_ you survive?”

“Old Jedi trick,” Ahsoka said absently. “Wait, New Republic? We won?” Hope blossomed in her chest and she stared intensely at Mara. Mara nodded and suppressed a smile as Ahsoka’s victory cheer rebounded off the walls. “The Emperor is dead. Has been dead for twenty years now actually. “

Ahsoka gestured wildly to the chair next to the bed. “Sit, sit, please! You have to tell me what happened, I've missed so much.“

Mara sat, stiffly at first, but as the story progressed, she melted into the chair a bit. She found Ahsoka’s genuine joy and investment in the retelling of history delightful though strange. Ahsoka’s emotions were clearly readable and though Mara didn't understand why the Togruta’s grief was so strong at certain points of the story - why would she be overcome with sadness instead of joy at hearing of the downfall of Lord Vader and the Emperor? - Mara enjoyed telling the tale of a Rebellion victorious and the beginning of the New Republic.

 

After a while Mara was joking like she was back with Kaarde’s crew. She was a bit startled at how comfortable she felt around this woman who was little more than a stranger.

“You know, maybe I do remember you after all”, Mara said with a smirk on her lips.

“I knew it!“, Ahsoka laughed. “When did you ditch the Empire?”

Before Mara could answer, the durasteel doors opened yet again, and Luke entered. He stopped in the doorway at the sight of the two women sitting together. With a soft smile, he came closer.

”You must be feeling better, Fulcrum.” At the mention of Ahsoka’s code-name, Mara looked questioningly at Luke and he smiled fondly at her. “We're honoured to have you with us, Ahsoka Tano. You did a great service to the Rebellion and I'm only sorry that it took us this long to get you back above ground,” Luke said. “My name is Luke Skywalker. I believe you knew my father?“

Ahsoka’s disbelief turned into joy as realisation hit. Anakin… A piece of her old master remained in his son, a bright shard of all the best he'd ever been.

Luke continued, a soft smile still lingering on his lips. “I talked to Hera Syndulla. She was the one who convinced us to go back to Malachor. Your friend is very tenaciou, and she's most eager to meet you again.”

 

* * *

 

Soon after Luke and Mara retired from the medical facility. Ahsoka sighed with relief when the doors hissed shut and she was finally alone again. ‘Strange’, she thought, ‘that I yearn to be alone after so many years of solitude.’

Grief and joy was battling inside of her. The pain was both new and yet decades old. She’d had years to process her master’s betrayal but the news of both Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s deaths felt crushing...  She needed to move on, Ahsoka knew. Wallowing on might-have-beens from a long gone past wouldn't help anyone. She had old allies as well as new to discover. This was a new world order and she would face it with her brow held high, come what may. Ahsoka laid down and a smile spread across her face as she fell asleep.

  
  
  
  



End file.
